First two weeks home......

  

  Time flies once a child comes home!  We have been so busy with appointments, phone calls, and lots of catch up from the trip and being so sick for a week.  Talk about the worst plane ride ever.  I was the passenger no one ever wants to sit by, would have been embarrassing, but I was too sick to care.  All that said, the good news is that Joy is HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No more waiting to see her no more longing to fly to Ghana.  We finally feel that our family is complete.  The desire to add 3 to our family started in 2007 and now 3 more are here.  A big sigh of relief!

    The first week home we went to the pediatrician and poor girl had to get 4 shots:(  I am so glad she didn't get chicken pox when we came home since they don't exist in Ghana.  Then last week we went to an Audiologist in Portland at the hospital up on the hill in the woods.  Joy's hearing loss is permanent with unknown origin.  Her left is better at moderate-severe hearing loss and the right with severe to profound hearing loss.   Hearing aides will help the left and possibly the right.  She is not eligible for a cochlear implant.  The audiologist was great and was worth the drive, making it fun for Joy.  We went to the pediatric dentist on Thursday and they made her appointment fun and not in the least bit scary.  For older children that have never been to the dentist it was well worth it.  She has 8 cavities which will have to be addressed in 4 appointments including laughing gas to make it more enjoyable!  Next week we will see her pediatric cardiologist to make sure her heart repair was a success and doesn't need follow up or have premed at the dentist.

   The overall adjustment has been wonderful!  God weaves families together, each person hand picked.  Elise has been such a good big sister while in Ghana and at home.  While I was so sick on the plane Elise sat by and entertained Joyce for 10-12 hours!  I hope her first trip out of US will stay with her forever.  I know that I am so thankful to once again use the dishwasher, washer, and dryer.  I am also so thankful to be away from the heat.  We are so thankful to Jeanie that we could stay at her home while in Ghana.  We were able to shop, learn to cook Ghanaian food, and live the way a middle class family lives in Ghana.So much better than staying in a hotel.  We were so blessed to have Grandma Jean with us.  Hopefully an experience she will forever remember, her first time abroad and to Africa!!!!

    We hope to meet up sometime  on US soil with our friends Jeanie, Elena, and Celestina.  They will forever be in our hearts!